I’ve just published my annual reading list for 2024, as I’ve done for over a decade. Do check out the whole thing, but here are a few of my particular favourites from this year’s list, which, as always, is a bit of an eclectic mixture.

Four years after starting my COVID reflections series, I’ve learned that:

– Looking for a bit of beauty every day is a great way of finding positives in the world
– Writing about what is happening the world is much better for my state of mind than doomscrolling
– A community of people reading and reflecting is even better!
– Basic, widely available data and information is a vital part of government’s role, and one which they are still not doing enough.

The first phase of uninhabitability is uninsurability – Michael Mann, renowned climate scientist.

As climate risks to property increase, the people who live in places exposed to those risk are less and less able to afford to insure their properties. Which will start to create climate ghettos. And the housing crisis in Australia will worsen, as areas in areas with high risk of disaster become uninsurable.

Book Review: Escape from Model Land: How Mathematical Models can lead us Astray and What we can do about it, by Erica Thompson

Today I’m reviewing a book that I loved, a book for any actuary, or indeed model builder or model user to read. I felt as if I highlighted half of this book, so I’ll try and give you enough of a flavour of Thompson’s insights so that you feel compelled to read it yourself.

With COP26, the global conference to achieve action on climate change, starting tomorrow, I’ve taken a quick look at the data (as opposed to the rhetoric) on Australia’s current progress on carbon emissions. Two great graphs recently caught my eye.

How do we balance the risks of vaccines and the benefits of our population being vaccinated? How do we balance the individual risks and benefits and the collective risks and benefits?

My view is that we should be asking people to take remote individual risks (such as vaccination complications) for the collective benefit (ultimately population immunity against Covid19). And we need to have this conversation as a society as population immunity becomes closer.

Sobering statistics on sexual harassment in Australia. Of the 20 million people in Australia over the age of 15, in the last 12 months approximately 1.6 million women and 840,000 men – nearly 2.5 million people – have experienced sexual harassment of any kind. Included in this are 148,000 women and 57,000 men who were sexually assaulted  – 201,000 people.

As Australia has its annual debate about whether it is appropriate to have our national day on the anniversary of the day when a British naval officer planted the British flag, and claimed half a continent for Great Britain, ignoring the people who already lived here, I’m looking at some

How should actuaries advise their companies on climate change? Increasingly all financial institutions need to consider the impact of the risks associated with climate change on their core businesses. Even if they aren’t exposed to the physical risks of climate change (as general insurers are), other risks are increasing and need to be managed.

As Australians rally across the country to protest against mistreatment and deaths of Indigenous people, inspired by the week of protests following the death of George Floyd in the US, I’m comparing the statistics in the two countries. It saddens me to find, as I expected (I’ve blogged about this before), that Indigenous people are treated overall much worse by the police and prisons in Australia’s judicial system than black Americans are by theirs.